Reading Strategies

    The reading strategies that I use with students include the following:

Fix-Up Strategies:  These are strategies that help students with decoding words while they are reading.  These include:

Eagle Eye: Look at the pictures!  Look at the pictures for clues to help figure out the word.

Lips the Fish: Get your lips ready! Say the first few sounds of the word out loud.  Read to the end of the sentence and say the sounds again.

Stretchy Snake: "S-t-r-e-t-c-h" it out!  Stretch the word out slowly.  Put the sounds together to figure out the word.

Chunky Monkey: Chunk the word!  Look for a "chunk" that you know (-ing, -and, -art-, -old, etc.).  Look for a word part (be-, -er, etc.).

Skippy Frog: Skip It, Skip It!  Skip the word ("skip it, skip it").  Read to the end of the sentence.  "Hop back" and read it, read it.

 Tryin' Lion:  Try It Again!  Try to reread the sentence.  Try a word that makes sense.

Helpful Kangaroo:  Ask For Help!  After you have tried all of the other strategies, ask for help. 

Reciprocal Stategies:  These strategies allow students to develop their thinking skills and comprehension.  These strategies include:    predicting * questioning * clarifying * summarizing 

Good Readers:

• know how to decode, but don't "sound out" everything
• activate schema (background knowledge)
• make predictions (before, during, after)
• make connections (during) text-self, text-text, text-world
• ask questions (clarifying or pondering)
• make inferences (during and after reading)
• visualize (during reading)
• determine important information (during and after)
• synthesize information (after reading)